Late Night Lessons

It's been hard being back from the World Race. I came back knowing I wouldn't be home long and didn't want to put the effort into being here, so I lived in the past (the Race) and the future (seeing my race friends and coffee world to come). Bad move. When you're in a (relatively) bad mood, you only thing of bad things. So all I could think of was all the stupid comments, decisions, indecisions, and actions of the past I was dwelling in, and it was a little more than I could handle.
So I put those things death, made ammends where needed, and moved on. It feels good. Since coming out of my self-imposed exile I've reflected more on my trip and found a surprising number of things. One of those is that during many (though not all) of the times on my trip when I was having the most difficulty, struggling the most with my sinful man and hurting the most . . . were times I was being the most effective. This goes back to my blog here on Joy:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature, and complete, not lacking anything."

James 1:2-4

It doesn't say here how long it takes to develop perseverance. And after that perseverance has to finish it's work before you're complete. I think that the World Race and the reflections of it that followed developed perseverance in me or at least has got it on the developing path. My faith was tested a lot. Sometimes I failed and sometimes I succeeded and I think it takes both for the perseverance thing to kick in.

So now all I have to do is let perseverance finish it's work. No problem right? Ehehehehe. Anyway. That's my late night reflection. That, and that caffeine at night does indeeed succeed in keeping one awake. Peace.